These days, we often
here owners of perfectly restored vintage Porsches say that, as much as they
enjoy owning their cars, they've been relegated to garage-queen status because
of their value, rarity, and condition.

Visit a concourse field
at any club event and you'll see row upon row of gleaming, beautifully restored
Porsches with nary a rock chip on their exquisite sheetmetal. Many were
painstakingly restored with rare parts that took years to track down, then
carefully assembled with every single screw turned to the perfect torque
figure. For some, this is Porsche ownership at its best. For others,
it's a bit, well, stationary. Kieth Hoffnagle, who owns a
"perfect" Signal Red 356C coupe, realized he was missing out on a
vital part of the Porsche experience: driving one.

HIs solution? Build
another car he could drive without guilt - an approach increasing numbers of
classic Porsche owners have chosen. That car would be the 1960 Outlaw
Roadster you see here, a car with a hot-rod motor and a liberal application of
356 GT-inspired parts. Before Hoffnagle laid hold of it, the old Roadster
had been the victim of a stalled restoration.

"John Willhoit
found the car," explains Hoffnagle. "The owner started to
restore it but gave up on the project. It sat for a number of years before
he finally decided to sell it. Basically, it was a bucket of parts and
bolts." Like any car nut, Hoffnagle could envision the custom Outlaw
hiding in that daunting pile of rusted sheetmetal. Thanks to the prior
owner's efforts, the floorboards and longitudinals had been properly replaced,
but the entire front clip was missing - along with the rockers. Seeing as
the car had no known history and was disassembled, Hoffnagle figured it was the
perfect candidate for a hot-rod project. He purchased the car in 1998 and
let it sit another two years.

"I had two years
to think about what the car's appearance would be like," he says.
"I wanted it to be more aggressive than stock - but not so radical that
we'd be cutting up body panels." What he wanted was something along
the lines of a 356 GT - though his vision would be even more unusual because the
factory never produced a GT Roadster.

The first step in the
project was getting the sheetmetal sorted out. While the rust was being
repaired, Long Beach 356 expert John Willhoit added his chassis stiffening kit,
which necessitates cutting longitudinals and welding in internally boxed
sheetmetal reinforcements. Major rust areas had to be cut out and repaired
with new metal. Those included both the front and rear clips, the front
strut towers, the battery compartment, the engine tray, the lower door skins,
and the door jambs. While rust repairs were underway, the cosmetic
modifications began.

"On the decklid,
we removed the water tray and cut six louvers on each side of the grill for
added engine cooling," says Willhoit. Once rust repairs were
complete, Willhoit's paint and body specialists got to work on prepping the body
for final paint. But that meant the color choice had to be finalized, a
tough prospect for Hoffnagle.

"The color scheme
was the hardest thing to decide," he explains. "I definitely
wanted to stay with a Porsche color. Originally, I wanted to do Gulf Blue
with an orange racing stripe." After seeing some other Porsches with
that scheme, however, Hoffnagle realized it wouldn't be a unique setup. As
the 356 Roadster neared its day in Willhoit's spraybooth, Hoffnagle decided on
Adria Blue, offered on 1954-1955 356 coupes.

Despite the obvious
"old-tech" of the 356s Willhoit specializes in, the shop uses
computers to simulate different engine setups. The process starts by
measuring every component of the motor, from the connecting rods to the
valves. After that, components like the cylinder heads and exhaust system
are flow-tested. Once weights, measurements, and various flow
characteristics are determined, the information is plugged into software to help
determine the best course of action.

"It's like a
virtual dyno test," offers Willoit. "We can then select things
like camshaft profiles. It's a lot easier than having to rebuild the motor
if it doesn't end up the way we wanted it to." Willhoit says the
motor in this 356 was built for the street, with enough performance to be useful
for autocrossing or an aggressive canyon-carving session. Translation:
it's a torquey motor with solid mid-range power that can easily be exploited on
the street.

Starting with a late,
1600-cc crankcase, Willhoit selected a bore of 86.5 mm and the stock stroke of
74 mm. That dictated a displacement of 1735 cc. A Scat lightweight
crank replaces the heavier stock unit while a set of Carrillo connecting rods
are mated to the crank. A custom set of 10.2:1 forged pistons made by JE
were installed. The camshaft - also made to Willhoit's specs - is a 288
degrees unit, while the pushrods that ride on the camshaft are chromoly
items. The crank pulley was replaced with a five-inch aluminum pulley that
Willhoit says reduces fan speed by 10 percent. Since this was going to be
a recreational car, the heater boxes were deleted. Modified lower air
deflectors are used to increase airflow to the motor.

The cylinder heads
feature modified ports and combustion chambers. A set of stainless steel
valves with 8.0-mm stems measure 42 mm on the intake side and 34 mm for exhaust
work. Doubled valve springs are held on by lightweight retainers.
Dual 44 IDF Weber carburetors with custom five-inch air horns mix air and fuel,
while a Facet electric fuel pump mounted in the trunk ensures a steady supply of
the latter. For ignition, an MSD distributor works with an MSD CDI
ignition box with a 7000-rpm rev limit.

Willhoit built two
exhaust systems for this car - a 4 into 1 header system with a Sebring-style tip
and a dual-pipe sport exhaust. Willhoit claims the dual-pipe exhaust was
recently installed and is far quieter than the first system. And, after
hearing the "quiet" exhaust - which is far from subtle - in person,
one can only imagine the racket the louder one must make! When the motor
was finished, it was taken to Caribou Engineering in Costa Mesa,
California. There, a run on a DTS dyno yielded 129 bhp at 6200 rpm and 121
lb-ft of torque at 5000 rpm. These readings were taken with the
header-based exhaust setup; the numbers are just a hair lower with the dual-pipe
setup.

To put power to
pavement, the transmission is a Type 741 that has a later 12 bolt ring and
pinion with Custom B-B-A-B gear ratios. Shift throws have been shortened
by 40 percent with a short-shift kit. Once the power gets through the
transmission, the key to keeping it useful is a 356 that stay planted on the
pavement. To that end, the suspension system was the next phase.

Up front, the spindles
were modified to allow 1.0 degree negative camber for better turn-in and road
holding. A custom aluminum tie-rod setup was installed along with
specially-valved Bilstein shocks. The front torsion tubes have been
modified to allow this 356 to be lowered and fit with a set of 20 percent
stiffer torsion bars. To reduce body rool, a custom 17.5-mm anti-roll bar
is used up front. At the rear, a set of 25 percent stiffer torsion bars
have been installed, along with more specially valved Bilstein shocks.
Finally, the ride height has been lowered by 1.5 inches, front and rear.

"Because the car
is street driven, all of the original rubber bushings have been retained,"
says Willhoit, who adds that the 356's ride is firm but not overly harsh.
The brakes on Hoffnagle's Roadster are still discs, but with vented rotors and
calipers from an early 911. As with most older Porsches, choices for
period-correct wheels on any given model can be a limited affair. For
356s, you're limited to steel wheels or lightweight race wheels like Panasports
or Technomagnesios. The wheels on Hoffnagle's Outlaw are 15X6 inch
American Racing magnesium rims. Comments Willhoit: "These are a
magnesium casting and were the wheel to use in E Production SCCA racing in the
old days. They're hard to find, especially without cracks."
Once these wheels were X-ray'd to ensure they had no cracks, they were painted
satin black. "Originally, they used special chrome bolts. We
machined them to use a special seal adapter and factory lug nuts,"
explains Willhoit. The rare AR wheels are mounted on a set of extra
long 930 wheel studs. Tires are stickey 195/60R 15 Dunlops.

"The interior is
basically stock except for Speedster seats mounted on steel GT seat frames and
lightweight Speedster-style door panels," says Hoffnagle. Any leather
in the interior is Seagull Gray and perfectly complements the car's pretty Adria
Blue flanks. Heavy-duty German square-weave carpet was bound in the same
leather as the seats. A factory removable roll bar is bolted in for a
little added security, not to mention an even stronger faux-GT aesthetic.
A set of three inch wide Simpson lap belts hold the driver and passenger
securely in place. Plexiglass side windows are on on duty instead of
heavier glass windows and are lifted into place via GT-style straps. The
stock door handles were replaced with shorter, GT-style units.

Though the vintage
steering wheel on Hoffnagle's 356 looks stock at a glance, keen eyes will note
its smaller diameter and thicker rim. Reveals Willhoit, "The wheel
was made by cutting the stock spokes down and fabricating a new metal rim to
match them. The rim was covered with molded foam and then hand-sewn
leather." Another unusual detail is the custom oil and gas gauge,
which left the factory with just oil-temperature and fuel-level readings.
This special gauge, built by North Hollywood Speedometer, now has three
functions: oil temperature, oil pressure, and fuel level.

In person, it adds up
to a stunning 356 that combines understatement with a serious dose of the
sports-purpose attitude. Hoffnagle says he feels free to enjoy an old
Porsche the way it was meant to be - and does so regularly. But, looking
at the car it's almost hard to believe him. Simply put, this 356 is that
nice. One wonders if "rat rods" won't supplant the current
hot-rod trend among 356 and early 911 fans. After all, if the
"driver" is as nice as the garage queen, aren't we back to square one?